Friday, 28 August 2015

If you are the sort of CFL collector who likes to spend time looking for really obscure CFL trading cards (as opposed to the "mainstream" Jogo cards), you may eventually stumble across some cool cards made by a company called Pacifik Graphik. This was the case when one day I found myself looking at a website of a sports collector named Mac Maroon who specialized in making his own index cards with images and sending them direct to athletes (from many different sports) asking for autographs. Often the players would also send back (in the pre-supplied self addressed stamped envelope) their own signed cards from various sources as well!

And that is when I noticed that there were some curious and attractive cards from Pacifik Graphik featuring CFL players. I had never heard of these cards but with the look of them and the logos (including the team and CFL logo on some cards) I thought that perhaps these might be legitimate issues that were regional or promotional or something similar. So I did some google research and contacted the company which is located in Quebec City. Here is their website although it looks a little stale dated now.

As it turns out the connection of this company to the CFL is that Offensive Lineman Alexandre Gauthier's brother worked there and starting in roughly 2004 they began to produce cards directly for the players. Originally there were only a couple of players made each year but eventually the number grew to about 30 by 2011 (whether that was per year or over a few years is unknown). The distorted low resolution card card image below comes off of the company website, I don't have a copy of it myself, and as a steadfast Calgary collector that irks me greatly.

So the cards were not for sale, they were for distribution to the players who had paid to have their own cards made only, and the only way to get them was directly from the players themselves. In fact I was unable to even get a listing of which players had been made. So I tried the same tactic Mac Maroon uses, a self addressed stamped envelope and a nice letter to five CFL players who had already proved responsive, as a test case. Initially nothing came of it and I forgot about it but some time much later I did get a response from Brendon LaBatte and so this is why I have predominantly his cards illustrated in this post.

It seems to me that the majority of these cards are from the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, and it might be that if you follow Alexandre Gauthier's career path you will find more cards from players on the teams he played for in each particular year. Eventually the CFLPA got wind of these cards and as they have the rights to assign the license for CFL trading cards (now of course held by Upper Deck), apparently they pressured Pacifik Graphik to stop making these cards.

So I am not sure if I should catalogue what I know of these cards or not in the planned eventual update to Collecting Canadian Football Volume I. They are technically not officially licensed but on the other hand they were professionally produced and since the players were involved in the process they are at least partially legitimate by some measure. In any case they do make an interesting group to pursue, they are rare, hard to get (some players would sell autographed copies off of their personal websites), sharp looking and well designed and manufactured. I only know of about 5 more cards than the ones illustrated here and there must be a lot more out there than that, so if any readers have Pacifik Graphik cards I would love to hear about them and get scans.

Wednesday, 12 August 2015

Fans attending games at B.C. Place in Vancouver after the 2011 season were justifiably proud of their newly renovated stadium (now easily the best indoor football stadium in the country) and eventually their Grey Cup championship Lions team. They would also soon celebrate the 60th anniversary of their franchise and all of these attributes of their club, venue and city would come together on a series of attractive firm plastic cups sold with drinks at games at the facility.

2011 Season cup and 2012 Season cup celebrating the Grey Cup win. Both cups have the regular Lions head logo on the reverse as per the left side cup

These are a bit of a mix in terms of cataloging because some cups are generic and some are player specific. I'll probably end up splitting them into Volume 3 and the future update for Volumes 1 & 2. The cups sport the logo of the renovated stadium as well as the sponsor logos of Pepsi and Centerplate (a worldwide event management company).

For the 60th anniversary year three separate player cups were issued focusing on players from three different eras of the club's history. Cup number 2 has star Lion players from the seventies and eighties, and cup number 3 has star Lion players from the nineties and up. All cups also include some historical facts on team achievements in each era.

The following season three more cups were issued with the multi-player item shown above, a special Geroy Simon cup and one showcasing the black gunmetal uniforms. These three cups all featured somewhat different designs. Finally in 2014 the cup shown below was issued as B.C. Place hosted the 102nd Grey Cup between the Calgary Stampeders and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

2014 Season Grey Cup Championship cup

In keeping with the theme of this post, I have also illustrated below left the special 2013 Tim Horton's Lions 60th Anniversary paper cup that was available at all 292 locations in B.C. in large or extra large sizes. According to a press release this was the first time a professional sports team logo was ever featured on Tim Horton's beverage containers. Tim Horton's has also issued commemorative Grey Cup paper coffee cups and numerous other items related to the CFL. It is a reminder that CFL collectibles can pop up anywhere in everyday places and are here today and gone tomorrow.

Finally illustrated above right is a Tim Horton's coffee can of uncertain date that happens to feature a picture of Hall of Famer B.C. Lion Jim Young. Jim was born in Hamilton so perhaps that is why he is featured on this particular can, but I have no other information or images for the item. I spotted this while visiting the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto where it was part of a memorabilia display of hockey collectibles. It shows that even while standing in the heart of Hockey's Mecca, a sharp eyed observer might stumble across a previously unknown Canadian football collectible.